This past weekend we went to stonehenge and the city of Bath!
The trip to Stonehenge and Bath started way too early to ever get up on a Saturday in London, 8:00 AM! ( I know it isn't that early but still... ) As I walked outside Manson Place to start walking towards the bus I was greeted by a very cold and wet wind. My group and I made it to our coach bus just in time, jumping over puddles and dodging raindrops along the way. We were off and hoping that the weather would get better before we arrived at our first stop of the day, Stonehenge. When I woke up from my nap to the voice of our tour guide, I was disappointed to see that it was still raining. With high hopes that it would not be as windy, I grabbed my camera and umbrella and headed off the bus. My question of if it was less windy now was quickly answered when my umbrella flipped inside out within minutes of getting off the bus. Regardless, with our hoods and umbrellas up and our heads down we trudged towards the huge rocks. We were barely able to snap a few pictures before literally being blown away by the wind. So, to try to save our lives we had a group consensus to head back to the bus. Soaking wet, we all ran back to our heated bus and joked about how cold it was. It was unfortunate that we weren't able to soak in (pun intended) the experience more while we were at Stonehenge. I would have like to have reflected on how many people had been to the site we were standing at, and the effort it took to get the rocks where they stood now. WIth high hopes and finally feeling back in our hands, we started our hour and a half drive to the city of Bath.
When we were about 10 minutes outside of the city everyone jolted awake, once again, by the voice of our tour guide who had starting to explain the history of Bath. She explained how all of the building in Bath are made out of the same stone, bath stone, so they all look the same. The stone is known for being very soft. As we cruised around the streets of Bath, I noticed that some of the street names were even engraved into the stone because it is that soft.
During WWII, the UK bombed some cities in Germany and to get back at the UK Germany bombed the city of Bath because they knew how much England loved the city. So, much of the city was actually destroyed during WWII and Bath had to rebuild those parts of the city with different stone because they didn't have enough money to build it with bath stone. Once they have enough funding they are going to re-do those buildings for architectural beauty purposes.
After driving around the city of Bath, we all got off the bus and started exploring the majestic city by foot. First, we went to see the actual bath in Bath. This is where the ancient romans used to bathe. The water is from a natural hot spring and is about 118 degrees. Since it was still very cold outside, I had to fight myself to not jump in and take a nice warm bath myself. It was truly amazing to think of the millions of people that had walked on the very stones for centuries before me that I found myself walking on that day.
After leaving the bath, I ate at a Thai restaurant with some people on my trip and it was delicious, and even better, for the first time since being in London I wasn't hungry at all! When we were done eating it was pouring rain. I opened my umbrella and stepped into what I swear is a worse cold than negative degree weather in the midwest. We walked to the main road in Bath, passing the amazing Abbey, two-thirds of which was destroyed in the bombings. Once at the main road, if at all possible, it seemed to be raining even harder so we took refuge in the nearest shop we could find. It turned out to be an art gallery with art work ranging from statues of women's bottoms to mug shots of famous Americans such as Snoop Dog and Prince. Yes, I agree, that was very strange especially since they were selling for over half the value of my plane ticket to Europe. We walked around to different shops, such as books shops and candy shops, until it was time to go back to the bus.
The only way to describe the city of Bath is like walking around in a fairy tale. The history around every corner is incredible and unlike any city I have ever been to. It almost seemed to be a made up place at Disney World because it was so adorable.
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